Now they want us to pay up. Poor countries are asking for billions of dollars more in aid over the years to come, to help them adapt to climate change and compensate them for their losses.

This includes the disappearance of rain-fed agriculture, as temperatures and sea levels rise, killing crops with salty floodwaters. It means the sudden destruction of extreme weather events, followed by outbreaks of malaria. And it could someday mean the desperate migration of "climate refugees," forced to invade new territories for fertile land, sparking tensions and violent wars.

This is the grim future envisioned by global representatives at the climate talks in Warsaw, and echoed in the United Nations’ latest report on climate change. Developing countries need to prepare, and they are right to hold their palms out to the Western world.

The fact is, we are mostly at fault. It’s true that China has lately surpassed the United States as the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluter, with India not far behind. But their emissions per inhabitant are still far behind wealthier countries, and we’ve been polluting the atmosphere for much longer.

Carbon dioxide remains in our atmosphere for centuries, and since the Industrial Revolution, the level of this polluting gas has increased 40 percent. While it may look as if rich countries are now getting a handle on their emissions, in many cases, they are simply outsourcing their pollution to China and other countries.

The end result is that the people who will suffer the most from climate change don’t contribute much to it themselves. The World Bank estimates that poor countries need as much as $100 billion a year to try to offset the effects of climate change, but are at most getting a few billion dollars a year in such aid from rich countries.

We’ve got to do better. Think about it: If this were a polluting company, we’d force a cleanup. We accepted that when it came to the Passaic River, where dumpers must foot the costs of repair. So why should we not accept it on a global scale, for pollution in our atmosphere?